14 DAY TRIAL // North Korean authorities apparently mean business, western officials have said. The Communist nation has announced just recently that it will openly engage in military confrontations with South Korea, if any of its ships, military or civilian, are stopped and searched by a US-led coalition.
The Democratic half of Korea said a few days ago that it would join the initiative, whose objective was to search suspicious vessels for signs of weapons of mass destruction that could potentially be used to attack America or Canada. The statement by the Communists does nothing to alleviate tensions in the area, which are also increased by the fact that the developed world is applying increased sanctions on the rogue nation.
South Korean media outlets said today that the North had restarted one of its older nuclear reactors, which could be used to make plutonium. The chemical is an absolute requirement for manufacturing nuclear bombs, which the North has already proven to be capable of. Following Monday's nuclear explosion, which was recorded by seismographs as far as Japan, the Communist state made it abundantly clear that it was capable of defending itself against invading forces.
According to official news agencies, the Russian Federation has currently begun preparations of limiting damages it may receive following a nuclear war. Undoubtedly, some in Russia think, if North Korea is attacked, or if it attacks, nuclear weapons will become involved at one point or another. The eastern part of Russia will be especially vulnerable to either direct damage, or nuclear fallout, and several state agencies have been placed on alert to limit the potential effects of atomic explosions.
“Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike,” the official North Korean news agency KCNA quotes a top Army official as saying. He also added that the North no longer considered itself as part of the armistice the country had signed with the South after the war in 1950-1953, on account of the fact that the US, who was part of the document, ignored its provisions by leading the South in the initiative.
“The [Monday] nuclear test was a grand undertaking to protect the supreme interests of the DPRK (North Korea) and defend the dignity and sovereignty of the country and nation,” the KCNA quotes a superior Communist official as saying during a meeting, in which top military cadres celebrated the successful nuclear test. Reuters reports that the western world believes Pyongyang only has sufficient fissile material for five to seven nuclear bombs, but that its newly reopened reactor could provide fuel for one more by the end of this year.